The only thing that stops the dust is the rain. It’s a sweet reprieve, but there is no middle ground. The land is either as dry as the Betty Ford clinic, or as wet as the ocean floor. Everything can be seen from the ridge overlooking Armadillo as John Marston gently bounces along atop...

GAMING NEWS

Halo 5: Guardians Announced [Update]

[Update] 343 Industries' Frank O'Connor has shared a bit more information on recently-announced Halo 5: Guardians, reiterating the statements made earlier today by Bonnie Ross, while also explaining why the team needs a three-year development cycle.

This audience has correctly stated and assumed that you can’t necessarily squish a full Halo game into anything less than a three year development schedule – and at least up to and including Halo 5: Guardians, that’s more or less true.

But we’re not just making a new game in that three year span, we’re also making a new engine. During the development of Halo 4, we pushed the Xbox 360 and the engine to its limits, and we were happy with the way we were able to make the Halo universe look. The Xbox 360 still has a few tricks up its sleeve, even now. We are moving to a whole new platform with the Xbox One – a new architecture, new graphics hardware and bluntly some new ways to think about gaming, period.

In addition, his post on the Halo Waypoint blog was accompanied by a piece of concept art, which has been embedded below for your viewing pleasure. Speculate away!

[Original] It's official, the next entry in the Halo franchise has been revealed ahead of Microsoft's E3 media briefing. It's titled Halo 5: Guardiansand will launch on Xbox One during the fall of 2015.

"Halo 5: Guardians is a bigger effort than Halo 4," 343i general manager Bonnie Ross explained. "That applies to the content and scope of the game, as well as the technology in what’s now a brand new and more powerful engine. Certainly there are some core elements carried over from prior games, but we’ve invested a huge effort in retooling our tech to take full advantage of the Xbox One’s hardware and ecosystem to create worlds and experiences worthy of next-gen."

The game will run at 60 frame-per-second on a brand-new engine. In addition, it'll have dedicated servers and a much more massive scope that we'll likely hear more about at E3. Speaking specifically about the upcoming expo, Ross went on to add:

"Many fans noted that I was very deliberate with my phrasing on stage at E3 last year. I spoke about a 'journey,' rather than a destination – and that journey definitely begins in 2014 with a giant leap, rather than one small step. We’ll give you much more information about our plans for this year at the Xbox E3 2014 Media Briefing on June 9, and we’re confident that Halo fans will be pretty excited about the special plans we have in store."

Be sure to let us know what you think of 343i's plans for the future of Halo in the comments below.